


Warp and Weft

by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel



Series: Do-Over [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: F/M, Reincarnation, Tags to be added as necessary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-10-05
Packaged: 2018-02-06 04:11:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1843924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel/pseuds/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When SHIELD's Pegasus base is invaded and the Tesseract stolen by a man claiming to be Loki of Asgard, Darcy Lewis isn't sure what is going on - especially considering the fact that Loki Odinsson died centuries ago, and she is his reincarnation...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Prologue**

* * *

**_Six months after the events of ‘Redeo’…_ **

* * *

The entire base was in an uproar. People ran back and forth yelling and obeying orders, as the base was evacuated as quickly and efficiently as possible.

In the middle of all the chaos, a helicopter came down, and let out the Director of SHIELD, Nick Fury, and his deputy, Maria Hill.

“How bad is it?” Fury asked, without preamble.

“That’s the problem, sir,” said Agent Phil Coulson. “We don’t know.”

The small group made their way inside one of the buildings, ignoring the organised chaos around them.

“Dr Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago,” said Coulson.

“NASA didn’t authorise Selvig to test phase,” said Fury, frowning.

“He wasn’t testing it, he wasn’t even in the room,” said Coulson. “Spontaneous advancement.”

“It just turned itself on?” Hill looked perturbed.

“What are the energy levels now?” asked Fury.

“Climbing,” said Coulson. “When Selvig couldn’t shut it down, he ordered the evac.”

“How long to get everyone out?” asked Fury grimly.

“Campus should be clear in the next half-hour,” Coulson responded.

“Do better,” Fury ordered.

“Sir, evacuation may be futile,” Hill pointed out. Fury gave her a look.

“We should tell them to go back to sleep?” he asked.

“If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance,” Hill went on. Fury didn’t acknowledge her remark.

“I need you to make sure that phase two prototypes are shipped out,” he said instead.

“Sir, is that really a priority right now?” Hill had to know.

Fury glared.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on,” he said. “Clear out the tech below. Every piece of phase two on a truck and gone.”

“Yes sir,” said Hill, and went off to see that it was done.

Fury entered the Tesseract containment chamber alone. Several people were already there, including Dr Erik Selvig.

“Talk to me, doctor,” Fury commanded.

“Director,” Erik greeted him.

“Is there anything we know for certain?” Fury asked.

“Tesseract is misbehaving,” Erik responded. Fury’s eyes narrowed.

“Is that supposed to be funny?”

“No, it's not funny at all,” Erik said. “The Tesseract is not only active, she's... misbehaving.”

“How soon until you pull the plug?” Fury asked.

Erik shrugged.

“She's an energy source. If we turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level...”

“We've prepared for this, doctor.” Fury reminded him. “Harnessing energy from space.”

“We don't have the harness,” Erik pointed out. “Our calculations are far from complete. Now she's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful,” he added hastily, “low levels of gamma radiation.”

Fury stared at him.

“That can be harmful.” Fury glanced around. “Where's Barton?”

“The Hawk?” Erik shrugged. “Up in his nest, as usual.”

Fury glanced up near the roof.

“Agent Barton, report,” he said aloud, and the small figure rappelled down to the floor. Barton walked over to where Fury stood.

“I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things,” Fury said, an unspoken reprimand in his voice.

“Well, I see better from a distance,” said Barton.

“Are you seeing anything that might set this thing off?” Fury asked.

One of the scientists in the room interrupted.

“Doctor, it's spiking again.”

“No one's come or gone,” Barton answered Fury. “It's oven is clean. No contacts, no I.M.'s. If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end.”

Fury went still.

“At this end?” he repeated.

Barton looked like he didn’t understand what had prompted that expression on the Director’s face.

“Yeah, the cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right?” he explained. “Doors open from both sides.”

There was a high pitched noise from the Tesseract, and the facility began to shake, the lights flickering. The cube began glowing brighter and brighter, rings of lights flaring off it, energy crackling. Slowly the light began to build up into a solid beam, which suddenly fired.

The beam hit a patch of empty air, and the space around it began to warp, blue light washing over it as the malformation in the air grew in size, the Tesseract powering it. The malformation formed a bright blue ring in mid-air, and then –

There was a bright flash which blinded everyone, a rush of energy blasting people off their feet and shorting out the lights. When the energy died down, the only light in the chamber was emitted by the dimly-glowing Tesseract.

Fury and the others rose slowly, staring at the figure at the other end of the chamber. The armed agents moved in slowly, weapons raised and trained on the figure.

The figure slowly raised their head, revealing glittering eyes and a malevolent smile. They were wearing green and black clothing in a style that was unfamiliar, and they held a spear in one hand.

“Sir, please put down the spear!” Fury called out. The man looked at the spear in his hand as though he was wondering what he was doing with it; then he lunged, and energy blasted from the crystal at the spear’s top, hitting several SHIELD personnel.

The SHIELD agents tried to retaliate, but the man was fast, taking them out before they could do anything. Then he stood, eyes darting around as though he was trying to get his bearings. His face was pale, and his eyes were ringed by huge, dark circles, as though he hadn’t slept in a long time.

Barton picked himself up off the ground and went for his gun, but the hostile stopped him.

“You have heart,” the man said, and touched the spear to Barton’s chest. Blue light travelled up Barton’s chest and neck, glowing briefly in his eyes before fading away.

Fury stared in horror and foreboding as what had been a loyal agent holstered his gun. As he watched, the hostile performed the same trick on several other SHIELD agents.

While the man was busy, Fury placed the Tesseract in its case and tried to leave the containment chamber.

“Please don’t.” The cultured voice stopped him in his tracks, and he looked back to see the hostile watching him with a thoughtful gaze. “I still need that.”

“This doesn’t have to get any messier,” said Fury, hoping that the situation wasn’t about to escalate, despite what his instincts told him.

“Of course it does. I’ve come too far for anything else.”

The man gave them a mad, glittering smile, but it was his next words that shocked them more than anything.

“I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose.”

“ _What?!”_ Fury and Erik exclaimed together.

 

 


	2. The Consultant Job

**Chapter One**

Several hours later in a laboratory in New York, a rather different scene was taking place. An iPod dock sat on a neat-but-crowded desk, blaring out music, filling the lab with a fast beat.

The lab had only one occupant, a young woman who was sitting and leaning on the desk, reading a sheet of data. Her brow was furrowed as she read, even as she absent-mindedly sang along to the music that the iPod was playing. She looked well-dressed, but out of place, in a pair of black slacks, a black top, and a tailored green jacket with gold scrollwork on the lapels. A pair of rectangular glasses sat the on end of her nose, completing the overall look.

Darcy looked up as the door to the lab opened, breaking into a grin as she saw who was entering.

“Son of Coul!” she exclaimed, the pages of data forgotten as she stood, moving to greet the SHIELD agent.

Darcy and Coulson hadn’t really gotten along at first – their first few meetings had been disastrous, to say the least – but in the last few months Darcy had slowly warmed up to him. Coulson was the senior agent in charge of liaising with Jane about the Einstein-Rosen bridge project, and since Darcy was officially a consultant on the project, she’d ended up dealing with him a lot.

Coulson was strictly professional, but beneath the surface he was a good-natured man with a sense of humour, and Darcy got along with him surprisingly well. Part of it was Loki’s influence: in her past life Darcy had been a sharp-tongued young man with a wicked sense of humour, and Coulson’s deadpan humour and observations appealed to that part of her.

While Darcy didn’t trust the rest of SHIELD as far as she could throw them – she understood too much about how covert intelligence agencies worked to ever trust them to look out for her own interests instead of theirs – Coulson was a good man, and Darcy was willing to trust him at least a little, knowing that he wouldn’t betray her unless he had good reasons for doing so.

“Miss Lewis,” Coulson greeted her, looking worn around the edges.

“You don’t look so great, Secret Agent Man,” Darcy observed. “Does this little meeting have something to do with why you sent Jane to Tromso first-thing this morning?”

“It does,” Coulson responded. He walked past Jane’s disaster-area of a desk and rested his briefcase on Darcy’s more ordered one. “Given the events of early this morning, both you and Dr Foster are potential targets for attack.”

“What? Why?” Darcy demanded.

Coulson cleared his throat.

“Early this morning, a secure SHIELD base was breached. The base was the site of Project Pegasus, a classified project based around the production of potentially-unlimited power. The project was in its earliest stages, data-gathering only, but something unexpected happened.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Darcy held her hands up for Coulson to stop. “What do you mean, ‘the production of potentially-unlimited power?’ No one on Earth has that kind of technology.”

“You’re right.” Coulson opened his briefcase. “Director Fury has given you clearance to know that the project centred around the study of an extraterrestrial artefact, the Tesseract.” He pulled out an A4-sized sheet of paper and handed it to her.

Printed on the paper was a colour photograph of a glowing blue cube.

“Okay, that is definitely extraterrestrial,” said Darcy, frowning down at the photo. “The Tesseract? The name’s familiar, but I can’t think why. One of Loki’s memories, I think, but I can’t pin it down.” She looked back at Coulson. “So, you were studying this Tesseract-thing. What  happened?”

“Early this morning, the Tesseract turned itself on, and wouldn’t switch itself off. It produced some kind of portal. The portal allowed a hostile to enter the base. The hostile was carrying a spear, which he used both as weapon – the spear shot energy blasts, according to Director Fury – and, as far as we can work out, as some kind of mind-control device.”

“Mind-control?” Darcy repeated quickly. “Oh, this is going somewhere bad.”

“It is,” Coulson confirmed sombrely. “The hostile took control of a number of our agents and several scientists working on the project. I’m sorry to say that Dr Selvig was one of the scientists taken.”

“Erik?” Darcy put a hand to her mouth, eyes wide. “Is that why you think me and Jane are potential targets of this guy? Because Erik knows about our research?”

“That’s one reason. This is a CCTV still showing the hostile.” Coulson pulled out another A4 printed photograph, and held it out for Darcy to see it.

Darcy froze, her breath catching, as she got a good look at the hostile’s face. It was hers.

“He identified himself as Loki of Asgard,” Coulson finished, watching Darcy closely.

Darcy grabbed the photo and stared at it.

“What the hell!” The face in the photo was definitely hers. Well, okay, not _hers_ – Loki’s. Past-hers. His. Whatever. The point was, someone was walking around with a face that was long-dead, and again, _what the hell_.

“I reiterate, what the _hell_ ,” Darcy said aloud, peering at the photo.

“You recognise him?” Coulson asked intently.

“Of course I recognise him!” said Darcy. “He’s me!”

“How is that possible?” Coulson asked.

“I don’t know, an illusion maybe?” Darcy suggested distractedly, still staring at the CCTV still. “Although how that would help the guy, I don’t know, considering the fact that everyone knows that the real Loki died a long time ago.” She handed the photo back to Coulson.

“Maybe whoever it is assumed that Earth wouldn’t be in the loop,” Coulson mused thoughtfully. “Could this be an attempt to shift blame onto Asgard?”

“Could be, I guess.”

Darcy folded one arm and raised the other hand to her chin, unthinkingly assuming one of Loki’s contemplative poses. At this point, Loki and his memories were firmly embedded at the centre of Darcy’s psyche, and it was impossible to sort out where Loki ended and Darcy began. They were, after all, the same soul.

“I’m missing something,” Darcy said aloud, her eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what, but it’s _there_. This is going to bug me.”

Coulson cleared his throat, and Darcy looked at him questioningly.

“At this point, SHIELD has no idea where the hostile has gone or what his intentions are,” Coulson said. “You’re the closest thing we’ve got to an expert on magic and alien cultures. If you agree, SHIELD would like to take you on as a consultant for the duration of the crisis.”

“I’ll want to see footage of this guy’s arrival, data on what the Tesseract was doing, everything,” said Darcy firmly. “I need to know exactly what I’m dealing with, here.”

“Agreed,” said Coulson. He pulled a small stack of paper out of his briefcase. It proved to be a consultant contract, outlining terms and conditions. Darcy paged carefully through it, then nodded, grabbing a pen off her desk and signing. Coulson put all the papers back in his briefcase, and clipped it closed.

“An escort will take you to the helicarrier immediately,” he said, and Darcy held up a hand.

“I need to go home first.”

“Miss Lewis–”

“My armour is there,” she interrupted, and Coulson paused.

“You think you’ll need it?” he asked.

“I don’t know, but better safe than sorry,” Darcy said honestly. Coulson nodded.

“Alright. We’re taking a full escort, in case the hostile has tracked down where you live. We don’t know how much Dr Selvig has told the hostile about you.”

“Great,” Darcy muttered. She quashed the urge to ask if Coulson thought that Erik would be okay. She already knew that the answer was ‘probably not.’ “Fine. Let’s go.”

* * *

Darcy’s apartment proved to be empty, so Darcy left Coulson and the goon squad in the living room and walked into her bedroom, shutting the door firmly behind her. Taking off her green-and-gold jacket, she walked over to the stand holding her armour.

She’d asked Thor to bring the stand to her apartment a while ago, sick of dumping her armour on the floor when she wasn’t wearing it. Now, Darcy put the armour on piece by piece over her black pants and shirt, and changed into a pair of black combat boots. Finally, Darcy plaited her hair back so that it was out of the way. When she was finished, Darcy laid a glamour spell on herself, creating the illusion that she was still wearing the same outfit as before. Then, grabbing an empty gym bag, she shoved a couple of changes of clothes in there, just in case, along with a couple of Loki’s spell-books. Then she zipped it shut, and walked over to the bedroom door.

Coulson seemed unsurprised when Darcy emerged looking just the same as when she’d entered.

“You’re wearing the armour?” he asked.

Darcy dropped the glamour for just a second, letting him see the green-and-gold armour and cape she was wearing. Then the glamour sprang back up, and she once again looked like she was wearing a normal outfit.

“I packed some spare clothes and a couple of spell-books, too,” Darcy added, “just in case.”

“Good idea,” said Coulson. “It’s possible you’ll be on the helicarrier for several days – we don’t know how long it will take for this situation to be resolved. Probably the rest of the experts we’ve been collecting won’t arrive on the helicarrier until tomorrow, so you’ll be there overnight at the very least.”

“Because you want me in a safe location in case Doppelganger decides to go after me, right?”

“Exactly,” Coulson confirmed. “Probably someone will show you to a lab when you get there – just ask for anything you need. If you need to sleep, let someone know, and they should be able to find you a bunk somewhere. If you need to eat, ask for directions to the cafeteria.”

“Thanks,” said Darcy.

“Not a problem.” Coulson looked at his watch. “If you’re done, we should get going.”

The group left Darcy’s apartment, the SHIELD goons surrounding Darcy and Coulson as they made their way down to where the SHIELD cars were waiting for them.

“The convoy will see you the rest of the way,” said Coulson, as Darcy climbed into one of the cars.

“Where are you going?” Darcy asked, as Coulson started to make his way towards a different car.

“I have another consultant to notify,” he called back over his shoulder. “You’ll probably meet him tomorrow. Try not to tase him.”

“Stepanak deserved it!” Darcy shouted after Coulson. He kept walking without any sign that he'd heard her.

“I tase a SHIELD flunky _once_ , and he never lets me live it down,” Darcy muttered, shutting the car door. "It's not like I tase _everyone."_


	3. Aboard the Helicarrier

**Chapter Two**

It took a few hours for Darcy to be flown to the helicarrier, during which time she read through the spell-books she’d packed in her gym bag. Once she reached the helicarrier she wasn’t shown to a lab, as Coulson had predicted: instead, she was shown to the bridge.

“Director Fury,” said the agent escorting Darcy, “Miss Lewis is here.”

Several people glanced in Darcy’s direction, but the person who turned around was an intimidating black man wearing a long leather coat and an eyepatch. He had a certain amount in common with Odin, Darcy thought: the single eye, the aura of command, and the dubious way he was currently eyeing her all reminded her of her former father.

Darcy stared back, unafraid of the way that Director Fury was regarding her.

 Finally, Fury spoke.

“Miss Lewis – or should I say, Loki. You want to explain why there’s a guy running around out there using your name and apparently wearing your face?”

“For the millionth time, I _used_ to be Loki, now I’m Darcy Lewis,” said Darcy. “You’d think no one had ever heard of reincarnation before.” The remark earned her several raised eyebrows, but the Director just eyeballed her with irritated patience. “And my current theory is that his appearance is an illusion, although I can’t actually tell for sure unless I meet the guy.”

“And how do we know he isn’t the real Loki, and you’re not some kind of pretender?” Fury demanded. Darcy’s eyes narrowed.

“You don’t,” Darcy said bluntly. “In Asgard, however, they have means of determining the truth, and my identity has been confirmed by the King of Asgard himself, a man who knows more about magic than you could learn in _generations_ of study.”

Darcy spread her hands, smiling with too many teeth – Loki’s smile.

“Of course, everything I say could be a lie, as you have never met anyone from Asgard for yourself, but at present I am the only expert on magic and Asgard that you have, and as they say, beggar’s can’t be choosers.”

Fury was staring at Darcy in a vaguely perturbed way, while the dark-haired woman next to him looked genuinely creeped out.

“Sir,” she said, glancing at Fury.

“I know,” said Fury, without looking away from Darcy. “What if I told you that the hostile who invaded my base talked and smiled exactly as you do?”

Darcy’s smile vanished.

“Then I’d say he knew me rather well once upon a time, Director.” Darcy took a deep breath, and consciously allowed the Loki aspect of herself to recede. “Sorry. Sometimes Loki seeps through.”

“Are you aware that your body language, intonation and accent all change when you do that?” the dark-haired woman demanded of Darcy.

“Well, yeah,” said Darcy. “I mean, when I say that Loki was a different person, I mean it.” She turned back to Fury. “I’d like to see the footage of my doppelganger, plus any data on what the Tesseract was doing just before he came through.”

“Agent Surawski will see that you get everything you need,” said Fury, nodding to a blonde woman nearby. “Surawski. See Miss Lewis to her lab.”

“Yes, sir,” the blonde woman nodded in obedience, and looked at Darcy. “Follow me.”

Darcy followed the woman off the bridge and into the depths of the helicarrier.

“I don’t suppose we can grab some snacks?” Darcy asked. “It’s been a few hours since I’ve eaten.”

“There’s a snack machine on the way,” said Surawski briskly. “Will that do?”

“Sure,” Darcy agreed. “A snack machine’s fine.”

Sure enough, the next hallway down had a little alcove with a snack machine and a drink machine in it. Darcy bought a bottle of water and some M&Ms, before Surawski continued leading her down hallways.

Eventually they reached a set of labs, and Surawski used her security pass to open the lab door.

“Your pass should allow you to come and go from the lab whenever you want,” she said, eyes flicking to the security pass that Darcy had been given on the plane. “Although I wouldn’t leave unless you need to. The restrooms are back two hallways and to the left. Agent Coulson arranged for the materials you requested to be placed on the main lab computer. Your log-on is ‘d-lewis,’ and your password is currently set as ‘algeria.’ Any questions?”

“None,” said Darcy. “Thanks.”

Surawski left, shutting the lab door behind her. It closed with a quiet _beep._

Darcy looked around. The lab was a decent size, outfitted with several different computers, although only the one at the front desk seemed to be connected to the projector screen to the left. Darcy assumed that was the main computer.

She logged on using the log-on and password that Surawski had given her, without any problems. There was a folder on the desktop named ‘d-lewis files’ and Darcy clicked it.

She whistled as she got a look at the many data files that filled it.

“Great,” she muttered. “This is going to take _ages_.”

Darcy clicked on the first file, and prepared for a long afternoon.

By the time that Darcy was finished going through the files, she was a mixture of absolutely furious, and seriously freaked-out.

Whoever the impostor was, he behaved eerily like Loki. Oh, not completely – Doppelganger was off his rocker, and it showed. But if Loki had ever gone insane, he probably would have behaved exactly like Doppelganger. It creeped Darcy out.

Frowning, Darcy ate a handful of M&Ms as she considered the Tesseract data she’d viewed. Darcy was no scientist – her specialty, if you could even call it that, was magic – but it was clear that the Tesseract had been reacting to something.

Yawning, Darcy checked the time. Early evening. She should probably get some food.

Shutting down the computer and grabbing her gym bag, Darcy left the lab. Getting directions off a passing agent, she made her way to the cafeteria. To her relief, it appeared to be still open, despite the late hour. But then, she thought, people probably worked all kinds of crazy hours here.

As she ate, Darcy wondered about the spear that pseudo-Loki had been carrying. If it could shoot energy blasts _and_ be used to mind-control people, then it could probably be used for other purposes, as well. Most likely it was a conduit of the user’s will: if Darcy was right, then the spear carried a certain amount of magic, which responded to the thoughts of those around it, especially its user. The thing was, the gem in the spear shone the same blue as the Tesseract itself, and Darcy didn’t think that was a coincidence. Were the two artefacts connected? Had the spear been used to open the portal from whatever part of the universe that Doppelganger had come from? Darcy was pretty sure that was the case.

Slinging her gym bag over her shoulder, Darcy left the cafeteria, and made her way to the bridge.

When she got there, it was as busy as it had been earlier, but Darcy noticed a couple of new faces: two people in civvies instead of the usual SHIELD tactical suit. One was a hot blonde guy wearing clothes that looked like they’d been picked out by someone’s grandfather; the other was a red-headed woman in a leather jacket. Quirking an eyebrow at them curiously, Darcy cleared her throat.

“Director.”

Fury turned away from a console to look at Darcy.

“Miss Lewis. I take it you’ve found something.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” said Darcy honestly. “This is mostly speculation on my part, but educated speculation, so there’s that. Anyway, I have some ideas about both the hostile–” she used the same term Coulson and the others had used “–and the spear he’s been using.”

“Go on.” Fury was looking at her intently. Most of the rest of the people on the bridge continued what they were doing, but the red-headed woman and the blonde hottie were staring at her.

“Right, well, as far as the hostile goes, my working theory is that he’s using a glamour spell – a type of illusion – to make himself look like Loki,” Darcy began. “Assuming it’s a ‘he.’ Anyway, whoever they are, they must have known or observed Loki for some time while he was still alive, because they’ve got his mannerisms and stuff down pat. Then there’s the spear. I’m pretty sure that the spear and the Tesseract are linked somehow, which is how Doppelganger – the hostile, I mean – was able to open the portal into your base. It’s possible that the spear itself is powered by the Tesseract, but it might also act kind of like a remote control. Whether that’s true or not, it’s pretty likely that the spear has other capabilities that we don’t know about yet.”

“That’s not good,” said Coulson’s voice, and Darcy looked over her shoulder to see him standing in the doorway behind her. “You couldn’t find out anything else?”

Darcy shrugged.

“I’m speculating as it is,” she pointed out. “I really can’t tell you what else the spear does without taking a close look at it.”

“Sir,” one of the nearby SHIELD agents suddenly spoke up, turning away from a computer screen. Coulson and Fury both turned to look at him. “We’ve got a hit. Sixty-seven percent match. Weight, cross match, seventy-nine percent.”

“Location?” Coulson asked.

“Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Konigstrasse. He’s not exactly hiding,” the agent answered.

Fury glanced at the hot blonde guy.

“Captain, you’re up.”

The hot blonde guy nodded, and left the bridge. The red-headed woman followed almost immediately.

“Miss Lewis,” Darcy looked back at Fury. The Director’s face was serious. “Once we capture the hostile, I’ll expect you to find us some answers.”

Darcy felt her mouth curve into a Loki-smile.

“I’ll be glad to, Director.”

"Find us some cameras in Stuttgart, I want to know what the hell this guy is doing," Fury ordered. Agents sprang into action, and Darcy moved onto the walkway where she was out of the way of the chaos around her.

After a moment someone brought up what looked like security camera footage, and Darcy leaned forward to get a better look.

There, on screen, was Loki's Doppelganger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _ETA: I'm quite busy this week, and I'll be busy for the next couple of weeks, so I'm not entirely sure when the next update will be. I will update at some point, though!_


	4. Stuttgart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. Just letting you know, I'm going to be pretty busy for the next few weeks, so I'm not sure when I'll post the next few updates. Sorry about that. I'll update when I can.

**Chapter Three**

Doppelganger had some guy pinned to a table and was doing something painful to him, judging by the way the guy was writhing in pain, although it was difficult to work out what from the angle of the camera. After several minutes, Doppelganger finished what he was doing and simply walked away. Darcy winced as she got a good look at the guy on the table: his face was bloody, and one of his eyes was gone, leaving a ruined socket.

“Find out who that guy is,” Fury ordered, as Doppelganger walked off-screen. “And get me a new camera view.”

After a moment the view on-screen changed: the new camera view was outside, looking out into the street. People were running away from the building, while Doppelganger walked leisurely out. As Darcy watched, his image shimmered, leaving him in armour that was remarkably similar to hers. Darcy’s eyes narrowed, and she moved closer towards the screen for a better look.

There were small differences between her armour and Doppelganger’s, but his armour was obviously modelled on hers – he even had the ridiculous helmet on, for crying out loud. Frowning, Darcy noticed that the armour was clearly made by Asgardian smiths: it had all the telltale signs of Asgardian workmanship.

Darcy watched as Doppelganger terrified the crowd of people in front of him, forcing them to kneel before him, using illusions to further intimidate them. She nearly cheered when someone in the crowd stood up in defiance – from this distance, it was hard to get a good look at them – even though she knew that there was no way that Doppelganger would take that well. Sure enough, Doppelganger raised his spear, blue light gathering, and shot an energy blast at the person.

It never made contact.

Instead, the blast ricocheted off something, knocking Doppelganger flat on his ass. Darcy peered at the screen, and saw a guy in what was clearly, even from this far away, a Captain America costume. What the hell?

“Finally,” Fury muttered. He said more loudly, “The Captain’s in action. Someone give me Widow’s ETA.”

“About thirty seconds, sir,” said a SHIELD agent, but Darcy was too busy putting two and two together to pay any attention.

“Waitaminute – that’s actualfax _Captain America?_ ” Darcy blurted, eyes wide.

“Quiet,” Fury ordered, without looking away from the screen. Since Darcy wanted to see what happened next, she shut up. Still…

“ _Captain America_ ,” she muttered under her breath.

“I know,” Coulson whispered next to her, and the pair exchanged a quick glance of mutual understanding before Darcy looked back at the screen.

As Darcy watched, Captain America was knocked off his feet, and Doppelganger rested his spear above the Captain’s head – only for the Captain to flip himself and kick out at Doppelganger.

Suddenly there was a bright red and gold blur, and a blast of energy hit Doppelganger. The red and gold blur hovered, staying still long enough to resolve into Iron Man.

Doppelganger apparently felt that he was outmatched, because he held up his hands in surrender, his armour melting away. Darcy frowned. Was that an illusion, or was Doppelganger’s armour enchanted in ways that Darcy’s wasn’t?

“He might still be wearing the armour,” Darcy said aloud, and Coulson and Fury glanced at her. “It’s possible that it disappearing like that is an illusion.”

“Pass that on to Captain Rogers,” Coulson said to one of the SHIELD agents, who relayed the message through his headset.

Darcy watched as Doppelganger was taken into custody, and frowned. If it had been her in that position, there was a hell of a lot she would have done against her opponents before she surrendered. Which meant that either Doppelganger didn’t have half the arsenal she had – very unlikely, given the power of the spear he was holding – or…

“It’s a trap,” she said aloud. “This is what he wants.”

“What do you mean?” Fury regarded her closely.

“I mean, he _wants_ to be arrested by your guys,” said Darcy, frowning. “With the power he’s got, he could take them on, easy. Instead, he’s surrendering with only a token fight. He’s up to something.”

“You’re certain?” Fury asked.

“Positive,” said Darcy. “I don’t know exactly what his aims are, but he definitely has a plan. What are you going to do with him?”

“He’ll be brought to the helicarrier for interrogation,” said Fury.

“The helicarrier,” said Darcy slowly. “The centre of your operations.”

Coulson and Fury exchanged looks.

“You think he’s going to try something once he gets here,” Coulson stated, looking back at Darcy.

“I think so.” She was still frowning. “It’s kinda difficult to say, but it’s definitely something I would do. Dammit, this guy is seriously in-character. It’s wigging me out.”

“And you’re absolutely sure he’s not Loki,” Fury said dubiously.

“ _I’m_ Loki!” Darcy said in exasperation. “And that guy is definitely not me! I’m missing something, _still_ , and it’s driving me crazy.” She made an annoyed sound. “Anyway, assume that he wants to be brought to the helicarrier, probably to cause trouble once he gets here. What are you going to do?”

“Bring him here anyway,” said Fury. “We have containment measures for something far stronger than he is. We can use them on him.”

“Uh-huh,” said Darcy doubtfully. “Can you stop magic, though?”

“No,” Fury allowed, “but my understanding is that _you_ can. As soon as the hostile sets foot aboard this ship, I expect you to monitor the situation.”

Darcy made a face.

“As long as I get to question him,” she agreed reluctantly.

“Ask him anything you like. Just make sure he doesn’t escape or cause any more trouble than he already has,” Fury told her.

“Sir!” one of the SHIELD agents suddenly spoke up, sounding alarmed. “A man just landed on the helicarrier deck.”

“ _Landed?_ ” Fury repeated.

“Yes, sir,” said the agent, listening intently to whatever was coming through his headset. “He just… fell out of the sky, sir. The agent reporting describes him as maybe 6’3”, blonde, wearing some kind of armour and holding an enormous hammer–”

“ _Thor!_ ” Darcy exclaimed. Fury looked like he wanted to facepalm.

“Tell the agent reporting that the new arrival is non-hostile,” Fury sighed. “Bring him inside. Miss Lewis will meet him in Conference Room One. Surawski, show Miss Lewis there.”

Both agents assented, the first relaying the message about Thor, while Surawski joined Darcy.

“This way,” she said, and Darcy followed after her.

* * *

Darcy and Surawski waited in Conference Room One. When Thor was escorted in a few minutes later, his expression was stormy. One look at Darcy, though, and his expression lightened.

“Sister!” he greeted her with a relieved grin, and pulled her into a hug.

“Hey, big guy,” Darcy said, hugging him back. “What brings you here? Director Fury was kinda surprised when you landed on his flying pirate ship.” Darcy heard a faint choking sound from Surawski that might have been an aborted laugh.

Thor’s face immediately turned solemn.

“Heimdall has kept watch on Earth,” he replied. “Recently, his vision has troubled him, for he has seen a false Loki, who claims your name even as he acts in ways that endanger all the realms. Mother and I were concerned about the actions of this imposter, and Father agreed that whoever he truly is, he bears investigating. I came to assist your efforts in dealing with this wastrel.”

Darcy couldn’t help grinning at hearing Doppelganger described as a ‘wastrel.’

“Thanks, bro,” she said, patting Thor’s arm. “A couple of people affiliated with SHIELD have arrested him, and they’re bringing him here. I’m going to ask him a few questions once he gets here, but if you want to loom threateningly in the background, I wouldn’t mind.”

“I shall loom threateningly indeed,” Thor assured her.

“Right then,” said Darcy. “Come on, I’ll show you the lab they’ve given me, and fill you in on what’s going on. That’s okay, right?” she added to Surawski.

Surawski shrugged.

“I don’t see why not. It’s going to be a while before the quinjet arrives with the hostile.”

“Come on,” Darcy tugged on Thor’s arm. Thor went along without protest. “To the lab we go.”

Thor followed Darcy back to the lab, attracting curious looks as they went. Back in the lab, Darcy filled Thor in on what had happened. By the end of it, he was frowning sombrely.

“So that’s the situation as I know it,” Darcy finished. “Is there anything you want to fill me in on?”

“The imposter has an army called the Chitauri,” Thor said immediately. “They’re not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth -  in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.”

“Oh, well that’s just _great_ ,” Darcy grumbled, with a sigh. “I’ll fill Fury in when Doppelganger gets here, I guess.”

Darcy booted up the main computer to finish looking at the files. Scrolling down past all the files she’d already looked at, Darcy noticed a folder at the bottom of the list entitled ‘dossiers.’ She clicked on it.

It turned out to be full of a set of dossiers on a bunch of people. Darcy made a confused face, but looked through them anyway.

There were five dossiers in total: one for Tony Stark, one for someone named Natasha Romanov, one for someone named Clint Barton, one for a scientist named Bruce Banner, and finally one for a guy named Steve Rogers.

This was going to take a while. With a sigh, Darcy started reading the dossier for Tony Stark.

* * *

Some time later, Darcy and a bored Thor were summoned to the briefing room. When they arrived, Captain America – and seriously, Darcy had to restrain herself from giving an excited squeal at the fact that he was the _actual Captain America_ – Natasha Romanov and Dr Banner were already there, watching and listening to a scene playing on one of the monitors, while the SHIELD staff around them went about their business. Fury was talking to Doppelganger, who didn’t seem at all discomposed to find himself being held captive in a large glass cell.

There was a long silence in the briefing room as Doppelganger was left alone. Banner broke it.

“He really grows on you, doesn’t he?”

“Like hell he does,” said Darcy. “I am really beginning to get pissed off.”

Romanov gave Darcy a sideways glance, while the two men looked straight at her.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think we’ve met,” said Captain America.

“Darcy Lewis,” Darcy supplied. “I’m here as a consultant. This is my brother, Thor.”

“Greetings,” said Thor, nodding to all of them.

“I read your dossier,” said Banner, who was wearing a fetching purple shirt. “On the way here, I mean. So, that guy in there, he’s supposed to be you from a previous life?” His tone was politely sceptical. Darcy understood the scepticism, even if it was annoying, and appreciated the fact that at least he was being polite about it.

“He is, although _why_ he’s pretending to be past-me I don’t know,” Darcy replied.

“We suspect it is a ploy, to cast blame on Asgard for his actions,” Thor explained, putting Mjolnir down and folding his arms. He looked imposing. “We believe that whoever is responsible is unaware that there has been contact between Earth and Asgard.”

“All that stuff about magic in the briefing files, that was real?” Captain America asked, looking confused and dubious, like he expected someone to tell him at any moment that this was all a giant prank.

“Magic is common among the rest of the Nine Realms,” Thor replied, before Darcy could say anything. She smirked a bit, knowing that Thor was vaguely offended by the doubt expressed by the others.

“In other words, totally real,” Darcy said. “And can I just say how stoked I was to find out you are _actualfax_ Captain America? That totally made my day. I’ll have to find Coulson later and fangirl with him.”

Captain America looked mildly disturbed by this statement, but Darcy kept talking.

“Anyway, more important, Thor just told me that Doppelganger’s got an army, which presumably, he intends to bring here at some point. They’re not from Asgard or any world known to Asgard, which I’m guessing means you can’t tell me anything about their capabilities,” Darcy added, glancing at Thor inquiringly.

He shook his head.

“I am afraid not.”

“An army. From outer space,” said Captain America, still with his confused and dubious face on.

“Apparently,” Darcy confirmed.

“How reliable is this intel?” Romanov asked, her eyes sharp.

“I received the information from Heimdall, who saw it with his own eyes,” said Thor. “He has the gift of farsight.”

“It’s seriously reliable, and we should all be worried,” Darcy translated.

“So, the guy you’re calling Doppelganger is building another portal. That’s what he needs Erik Selvig for,” said Banner, making a connection that Darcy hadn’t. She winced, realising that things were even worse than she’d thought.

“Loki tells me that the imposter has him under some kind of thrall,” said Thor.

“Loki?” Captain America asked.

“Me.” Darcy waved a hand at him. “Actual-Loki in a past life. Keep up, Cap.”

“That’s right,” Romanov told Thor, ignoring the side-conversation. “Along with one of ours.”

“Clint Barton, right?” Darcy asked. The information had been in Barton’s dossier.

“Yes.” Romanov looked Darcy straight in the eyes. “I’d appreciate it if you can get him back.”

“I’ll see what I can do, obviously, but no promises,” said Darcy. “Right now, we have bigger problems.”

“I want to know why the guy in there let us take him,” said Captain America. “He’s not leading an army from here.”

“It’s a trap,” Darcy explained. “This is the centre of SHIELD’s operations right now. He’s planning to do something, but we don’t know what, yet.”

“And they brought him here anyway?” Captain America looked incredulous.

“Sometimes springing the trap is the best way to find out what it is,” said Romanov, glancing at him.

“Iridium,” said Banner, focusing on a different problem. “What did they need the iridium for?”

“Iridium?” Darcy questioned. She hadn’t heard anything about iridium.

“It’s a stabilising agent,” said a new voice, one that Darcy knew from TV. She turned to see Tony Stark walk in with Coulson. “I’ll fly you there,” he added to Coulson. “Keep the love alive.” Turning back to look at Banner again, he added: “Means the portal won’t collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD. Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants.”

“He is not Loki,” Thor rumbled, looking annoyed. “He is an imposter.”

“If you say so,” Stark shrugged.

“Dude,” said Darcy. “I saw your senate hearing. Nice stuff. I especially liked the way that one senator’s vein bulged when everyone started applauding you.”

“Thanks,” said Stark, looking her over. “I’m guessing you’re Darcy Lewis.”

“That’s me,” Darcy confirmed.

“The magic consultant, right?” Stark asked, and continued immediately, “See, I have a problem with that, because magic doesn’t exist.”

“Sure it does, it even operates by scientific principles,” Darcy replied.

“Then it’s science, not magic,” Stark said condescendingly.

“Uh, _no_ , it’s magic, no matter how it operates. How about I magically turn you into a frog to prove it?” Darcy suggested airily, wiggling her suddenly-glowing fingers and smiling with all her teeth.

“Nice trick there, glowbug, but if you think I’m going to buy some bullshit about magic being real, then I have to say, _cupcake_ –”

Darcy spoke one word, green fire trailing from her fingers as she gestured.

A moment later a small green frog gave a surprised croak from where it sat on the briefing room floor, right where Stark had been standing. It was kind of hard to tell, but Darcy was pretty sure the frog was wearing a surprised expression.

“ _Mary, Jesus and Joseph_ ,” Captain America blurted, looking shocked.

Darcy gave a satisfied smirk.

“See?” she told the frog. “ _Magic_.”

“Miss Lewis, I understand that Stark can be a pain in the ass, but I’d appreciate it if you turned him back,” said Fury from where he stood in the doorway.

“Since you asked so nicely, sure,” said Darcy. A moment later Stark was himself again, looking gobsmacked.

“You–” he started.

“Turned you into a frog, yes,” said Darcy, examining her nails and keeping her voice unimpressed. “So perhaps we can take the existence of magic as a given, and move the conversation along to more important matters, such as the impending invasion?”

“Invasion?” Fury asked sharply.

“Thor tells me that my Doppelganger – excuse me, the hostile – has an army out there somewhere,” Darcy explained, still using the bored voice. “Dr Banner believes that he intends to use the Tesseract to open a second portal, through which the army will arrive. I’d quite like to question the hostile now, if you don’t mind.”

“Go ahead,” said Fury. “See if you can get anything out of him. And Lewis? As long as he’s on this ship, you’re responsible for making sure he doesn’t use magic to cause trouble.”

Darcy gave a mocking salute.

“Yes, sir,” she agreed. “Can someone show me the way to where the hostile is being held?”

“I will,” said Romanov. “This way.”

Smiling unpleasantly, Darcy followed Romanov out of the briefing room.

Several corridors later, Romanov stopped.

“He’s in there,” said Romanov, tilting her head towards the nearest open doorway. Darcy nodded, and walked through.

In front of her was the glass cell. Doppelganger was standing idly inside it, facing away from Darcy.

Darcy’s footsteps sounded loud in the almost-empty room.

“Let me guess, another of this world’s petty defence force here to ask pointless questions?” Doppelganger asked, without turning around.

Darcy dropped the glamour that hid her armour.

“Not exactly,” she said, matching Doppelganger’s intonation. At the sound of her voice Doppelganger turned, and a second later their eyes met, Darcy reaching out with her magic to sense the other’s, Doppelganger doing the same.

Their magic made contact.

Darcy felt her eyes widen in shock, her expression mirrored on the face of the man before her. Because – impossibly – the magic of the man in front of her? Was _hers_.

Doppelganger wasn’t an imposter.

He was _Loki_.


	5. Double, Double

**Chapter Four**

“You – you’re–” Darcy stammered disbelievingly.

“You’re _me_ ,” Loki finished, looking as stricken as Darcy felt – although only for a moment. He recovered almost immediately, his face splitting in a toothy grin that didn’t reach his eyes. “Well. Isn’t _this_ interesting.”

“That’s one way to put it,” said Darcy. “You’re not from this reality, are you?”

“Apparently not,” said Loki, still smiling. “I confess, it is as much a surprise to me as it is to you.”

Darcy walked towards him. Loki did the same, so that only the thick glass of the cell separated them.

“You must have some theory of how you ended up here,” Darcy said.

Loki was staring at her in fascination. Darcy knew how he felt. Shaken though she was, this was _her_. An alternate version of Loki, one who had lived past seven hundred and three years old instead of dying in a sparring accident. Instead of being reborn as a human, this Loki had lived out his life, was still living it. What choices had he made? And how, most importantly, had he ended up sharing a universe with Darcy?

Loki shrugged.

“I suppose it happened when I fell from the Bifrost. That seems most likely. But let’s talk about you.” He ran his eyes over Darcy’s body in a distinctly appreciative way. “And how you ended up in this particular form.”

Darcy raised her eyebrows.

“Erik Selvig didn’t tell you?” she countered. Loki smiled.

“Well, he did tell me of a young woman who claimed to be Loki reborn,” he admitted. “I’m afraid I didn’t pay all that much attention, at the time. My mistake, clearly.”

Darcy eyed him, but decided to tell him the truth.

“I died in an accident on the training fields, when I was a little over seven hundred years old. Thor was angry and careless, and I paid the price.”

Loki’s face darkened at Darcy’s words.

“ _Thor_. I should have known.” He sneered angrily. “That witless oaf is always to blame.”

“I sense a certain amount of hostility,” Darcy noted. “You don’t seem all too fond of your brother.”

A muscle in Loki’s jaw twitched, but he didn’t lose his composure.

“He is not my brother. You do know of your true parentage, do you not?”

“I assume you’re referring to the fact that I was Laufey’s son,” said Darcy, and saw the twitch again.

Interesting. Loki’s heritage was clearly a sore point.

“Despite that,” Darcy went on, “I still consider Thor to be my family. After all, we were raised side by side, as brothers. While I admit that I still harbour some anger towards him over my death, I have had ample opportunity over the past six months to see that he has learned something from my untimely demise. Both his arrogance and his anger management issues have taken a considerable hit.”

Darcy flashed Loki a grin. “The fact that I saw him hit by a car and later tazed him also soothed my feelings somewhat.”

“I beg your pardon?” Loki looked vaguely startled, and uncertain that he had understood her correctly.

“Thor was mortal at the time,” Darcy explained kindly. “After he almost begun a war with the Jotun, Odin rendered him mortal and banished him to Earth until he had learned his lesson. With my assistance, some level of common sense was knocked into his thick head. He is rather more pleasant company than he ever was when I was Loki. His friends are more tolerable, too.”

“They were never so to me,” said Loki quietly, never taking his eyes from Darcy. There was something almost wistful in his expression, which he mostly succeeded in hiding behind a blank mask. Darcy knew her own facial expressions, however.

“My death made them rethink a few things,” said Darcy, just as quietly. “We’re still not close, but we _are_ friends. I assume that in your reality, they never had reason to reconsider their attitudes.”

“I would say not.” Loki’s sneer made a brief reappearance.

“So, how did you come to fall from the Bifrost?” Darcy asked casually. “I’ve told you my tale: it is only fair that you share yours.”

Bitterness flashed across Loki’s face.

“There is not much to tell,” he answered shortly. “Thor was banished in my reality also, for the same reason. I was made regent in his absence. Thor had brought us to the brink of open war: I had a plan to end it. Unfortunately, Thor’s friends committed treason against me for no better reason than that they liked him better, despite the fact that he had earned his banishment, and my plans were thwarted by Thor himself. In the fight that ensued, I was thrown from the Bifrost.”

“And then,” Darcy murmured, voicing her suspicions, “you fell into the hands of whoever controls the Chitauri.”

Loki’s eyes flew to hers, startled and wary. Then he smiled, to cover his reaction.

“I shall be king, and in return they shall have this world,” said Loki. “It seemed a fair trade.”

“Is that so?” Darcy stepped closer to the glass, until she was almost touching it. “I have only one question.”

“And that is?” Loki raised his eyebrows in polite inquiry.

“How long have your eyes been blue?”

Loki blinked, looking confused.

“What?”

But Darcy was already turning, walking back towards the doorway.

“I shall take this world for my own,” Loki called after her. “And none of your merry band of heroes shall stop me!”

Darcy didn’t bother to answer, heading straight back towards the briefing room. Several pairs of eyes turned to her as she walked in.

“Doppelganger’s eyes are blue,” said Darcy without preamble. “They’re supposed to be green.”

“I assume you have some kind of  point,” said Fury.

“Blue eyes,” said Banner. “I read the report on what happened when, uh, Loki came through. You think he’s being controlled the same way he’s controlling the people he took.”

“Exactly,” said Darcy. “And look, I don’t know much about mind-control, but I do know one thing.”

“And that is?” Romanov asked.

“It doesn’t always work, depends on the frequency and everything, but with mind-control spells that require a constant connection, a hard blow to the head is sometimes enough to break it,” said Darcy. “Thor, how do you feel about hitting Doppelganger really hard over the head?”

“If I must,” said Thor, shrugging.

“Would that work?” Captain America asked doubtfully.

“Cognitive recalibration,” said Romanov. “I’ve heard weirder things.”

“Uh, I hate to be the one to remind you – I really do, being a frog isn’t an experience I want to re-live – but we don’t know for sure that he’s being mind-controlled,” said Stark. “Also, nice armour. Is that casual-wear, or do you save it for special occasions?”

“So we hit him over the head really hard anyway,” Darcy argued, ignoring Stark’s last comment. “If it helps, that’s great, but if it doesn’t, well, we’re all kind of pissed at him anyway, right?”

“You make a convincing argument,” Stark said thoughtfully.

Darcy turned to Fury with a hopeful look.

“Can me and Thor go in there and whack Doppelganger over the head with Mjolnir? Please? I promise we’ll be careful not to let him escape.”

“Are you sure this isn’t the trap?” Coulson suggested. “Maybe the hostile wants you to do this.”

“Pretty sure he’s not that much of a masochist,” Darcy disagreed, earning a snort from Stark.

“How hard would you have to hit him?” Banner asked.

“I don’t know, dude, it’s not an exact science. It’s not like I’ve de-mind-controlled people before, you know. But no one who gets Mjolnir to the head is getting up again any time soon, I promise you that.”

“Let me get this straight,” Fury said loudly, his voice cutting over everyone else’s. “You want us to open the chamber currently keeping the hostile contained, so that Thor can hit him over the head, _maybe_ breaking the mind-control spell that may or may not be there?”

“Pretty much.”

“And what if your theory is wrong?” asked Fury. “What if Loki is doing this of his own free will? If I let you walk in and open that door, Loki has an opportunity to escape containment. Worst-case scenario, he disappears, and we have to capture him all over again, and in the meantime he might succeed in bringing his army here. At this point, that’s not a chance I want to take. Romanov.” Fury nodded at the agent. “Your turn.”

“Yes, sir.” Romanov left the room.

“But Director, if Loki really is being controlled, aren’t we under some obligation to help him?” Captain America protested.

“This is all speculation, Captain Rogers,” Fury responded, “and until I see some actual evidence of mind-control, going in there and hitting Loki over the head is an action of last resort _only_ , no matter how tempting it might be.”

Darcy scowled, but understood his point.

“Dr Banner,” Fury continued, turning to the man in question. “I believe you agreed to attempt to track the cube. Stark, I was hoping you would join him.”

“Sure,” said Stark, turning to Banner. “It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

“Thanks,” Banner said dryly, looking like he didn’t know how to take that.

“Why don’t you start with that stick of Loki’s?” Captain America suggested. “It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon.”

“I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Tesseract,” said Fury. “And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”

“Monkeys?” Thor looked confused at what monkeys had to do with anything. “I do not understand.”

“I do! I understood that reference.” Captain America looked pleased with himself.

Darcy couldn’t help it, she reached out and patted him on one muscled shoulder.

“Good for you, Captain.”

Captain America gave her an uncertain look.

Stark rolled his eyes and turned to Banner.

“Shall we play, Doctor?”

“Let’s play some,” Banner agreed. The two men left the room.

“Miss Lewis,” said Fury, glancing at the monitor. Darcy glanced at it as well. Loki was leaning back against the glass of his cell, looking pensive. “I’d appreciate it if you would stay near the hostile for the time being.”

“And prevent any break-outs, got it,” Darcy said with a sigh. “I still think we should hit him over the head, but whatever. Hey Thor, want to meet an alternate version of me?”

“I might as well,” said Thor. “There is little else to do. And I admit to some curiosity about this Loki.”

Darcy glanced at the screen again, just as Romanov appeared in front of the glass cell.

“Actually,” she said thoughtfully, “I want to see this, first. Let’s see if Romanov gets anything useful out of him: the last thing we want is him losing his shit because he saw you.”

“Very well,” Thor agreed, and the two of them looked to the screen as Loki and Romanov started to talk.


	6. Toil and Trouble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, for any of you looking for me on tumblr, the tardisistheonlywaytotravel on there _is not me._ Someone else grabbed that username before I could.
> 
> Also, this is probably the last chapter for a while. Sorry about that.

**Chapter Five**

“There’s not many people who can sneak up on me,” said Loki, with a smile.

“But you figured I’d come,” said Romanov, watching him.

"After,” Loki agreed. “After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate.”

“I want to know what you've done to Agent Barton,” Romanov said directly.

Loki smiled again.

“I'd say I've expanded his mind.”

“Not funny,” Darcy muttered, watching the scene. “Dammit, I can’t tell if he’s making jokes to cover his feelings, or if he really is that confident.”

“Once you've won,” Romanov persisted, “once you're king of the mountain. What happens to his mind?”

Loki’s expression was mocking.

“Is this love, Agent Romanoff?” he asked.

Romanov looked at him. There was nothing soft about her expression.

“Love is for children. I owe him a debt,” she answered repressively.

“Tell me,” said Loki, watching her. To Darcy’s surprise, Romanov did.

“Before I worked for SHIELD,” she began, “I, uh... well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skillset. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call.”

“And what will you do if I vow to spare him?” Loki asked curiously.

“Not let you out,” Romanov replied immediately. But Loki only laughed.

“Ah, no,” he agreed, looking amused. “But I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?”

Darcy could see what he meant. She didn’t like the fact that she could, but there was no point in denying it. She continued watching the scene playing out on the screen.

“Regimes fall every day.” Romanov gave a shrug. “I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian. Or was,” she amended.

Loki finally cut to the chase, sick of playing games.

“What is it you want?” he asked bluntly.

“It's really not that complicated,” said Romanov. “I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out.”

“Can you?” Loki shot back, his blase manner suddenly gone, replaced with an expression that was intense and angry. His eyes bored into Romanov’s. “Can you wipe out that much red? _Drakov’s_ daughter?”

Romanov recoiled, but Loki was nowhere near done.

“Sao Paulo? The hospital fire? Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping, it’s _gushing_ red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?”

“Hold the phone,” Darcy muttered, narrowing her eyes at the screen. “Why does that get to him? He’s weirdly affected by that idea, somehow.”

“This is the basest sentimentality,” Loki ranted through the speakers. “This is a child at prayer _– pathetic_!” he flung at Romanov, whose expression was distraught. “You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!”

Loki’s eyes were burning with the intensity of his emotions, and Darcy suddenly got it.

“Holy shit,” she breathed. “This isn’t about Romanov at all. This is about him being Jotun.”

“What?” Thor gave her a confused glance, but Darcy was too busy staring avidly at the monitor as Loki lost his shit.

“I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly. Intimately. In every way he knows you fear! And then he’ll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll spilt his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!”

Romanov had turned away, hiding her face as though to conceal tears. Her hair hid her face from the camera.

“You’re a monster,” she whispered, just loudly enough for the microphones to pick up.

“No,” Loki laughed, “you _brought_ the monster.”

Romanov suddenly turned back to face him, and her devastated expression was wiped away to become a business-like one.

“So, Banner. That’s your play,” she said matter-of-factly.

Darcy gaped at the screen. Loki wasn’t doing much better.

“What?” he asked, a hilarious jumble of emotions rolling over his face as he started to realise he’d been played.

“Loki means to unleash the Hulk,” Romanov said briskly, touching her earpiece. “Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well.” She turned back to Loki. “Thank you for your cooperation,” she said sweetly, and left the room.

Darcy let out a low whistle, long and impressed.

“That was brilliant. I feel like I should be applauding, or something.”

“That entire conversation – it was a trap?” Thor asked.

“Yeah,” Darcy said admiringly. “All a trap to make him spill. I am seriously impressed.” She shook her head. “Also, wow, I have a pretty good idea how much that’s going to _burn_.”

“Anyway,” Darcy turned away from the monitor to face the dark-haired female agent who had been creeped out by her Loki-smile earlier, “can we get someone to show Thor to the lab with Dr Banner, like Romanov asked?”

The dark-haired woman nodded, and turned to a passing agent.

“Denville.”

Agent Denville glanced at Thor.

“Ma’am,” Denville agreed. “This way,” he said to Thor.

“I’ll see you later, but keep an eye on Dr Banner in case he transforms into a giant green raging man,” Darcy told Thor. “Apparently he does that sometimes.”

“I –” Thor began, frowning. Darcy gave him a gentle push that had no effect whatsoever.

“Go on. I’ll be fine,” she said.

“Very well.” Thor looked reluctant. “I will guard Dr Banner, as you ask. But be careful. This other Loki seems… disturbed.”

“Enough issues to fill a library, yeah,” Darcy agreed. “But I’ll be fine. Now go, Agent Denville’s looking impatient there.”

Denville attempted to wipe his face of all expression, a little too late.

“My apologies,” Thor told the agent. “Shall we go?”

The pair left the briefing room, and Darcy glanced back at the monitor. Loki’s expression was still incredulous. Darcy smirked faintly, and left the briefing room as well.

* * *

“You’ve got to admit, the way she played you was pretty hot,” said Darcy, walking into the room containing Loki’s cell.

Loki pulled a face: half _‘please, spare me_ ’ and half _‘I concede your point._ ’

“I underestimated her,” Loki admitted sourly. He sounded both resentful and grudgingly admiring, which Darcy totally would have been in his position. “It will not happen again.”

“You sure about that?” Darcy asked him. Loki glared at her. “Because I’ve got to say, you've been acting pretty arrogant. Like, old-Thor levels of arrogant.”

Loki got a pinched look on his face at the comparison to Thor.

“You sound different,” he said suspiciously. Darcy shrugged.

“I’ve lived all of this life on Earth, dude,” she said. “I learned to speak like they do.” She smiled the Loki-smile, and deliberately slipped back into Loki’s intonation and vocabulary. “Although that does not mean that I do not remember how I spoke when I was Loki.”

“Why are you here?” Loki asked, somewhere between annoyed and wary. “You have seen me bested by the Romanov woman. She won my plan from me. I assume you heard that conversation, else you wouldn’t be here.”

Darcy smiled darkly.

“Oh, believe me, I heard. What was it you said?” Darcy pretended to think. “ _‘You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away.’_ That was what you said, wasn’t it?”

“What of it?” Loki asked sharply.

Darcy took a step closer to the glass.

“How much does it _burn_ you to know that inside that Asgardian skin you are Jotun?” she asked softly, knowingly, and saw Loki jerk back as though shocked. “How does it eat you up inside to know that you are one of the monsters, and that will never change?”

Loki’s face had turned white, and Darcy felt a weird mix of regret and satisfaction at his expression.

“You tell yourself that you aren’t truly Jotun, that the fact that you were raised Asgardian means something,” she continued, still in that soft voice, “but deep down you know that you were never truly Asgardian. That the love you strived so hard to earn was _always_ out of reach –”

“ _Stop_.” Loki was looking wild around the eyes. “Stop, you foul creature!”

Darcy raised the eyebrow.

“That, coming from you? Ironic,” she said pointedly.

“What do you want?” Loki demanded, and his voice was unsteady.

“I want to tell you something about me,” Darcy said conversationally. “And I want you to listen.”

Loki managed a sneer.

“Do I have a choice?”

Darcy looked him straight in the eyes, her expression serious.

“You always have a choice. To paraphrase Dumbledore, it is our choices that show what we truly are, more than anything else. Anyway.” Darcy resumed her conversational tone. “About six months ago, I visited Asgard. I have told you already of how I have been treated by Thor and his friends, since my reincarnation, but it was Queen Frigga who greeted me most warmly. I had wondered how I came to be reincarnated in the first place, and through questioning Frigga, I found my answers.”

Loki looked like he was listening in spite of himself. Darcy continued.

“It was with some surprise that I learned that Frigga was with child, around the time of my death. Now, had I known that I was Jotun, I would no doubt have mistrusted everything I had been raised to know as true, including the love of my family. I would have been wrong to do so. Oh, Odin was not entirely pleased to see me – I reminded him too much of his mistakes – but for Frigga, my return was proof that her bargain had been carried through.”

Darcy gentled her voice.

“That child I mentioned? It was never born. Its life was the Fates’ price for restoring mine. Frigga loved me so much that upon my death, she bargained away the life of her unborn child so that I might live on in some form, knowing that she might never even meet the person I became. All that, for love of the Jotun child she raised as her own. You see, she never saw any difference between me and Thor. No difference between the child of her blood, and the child of her heart alone. Knowing what she sacrificed for me, how can I possibly doubt that love?”

Loki just stared at Darcy, looking like someone had stabbed him in the heart. His eyes held more pain than one person should have to bear.

“You think that all Jotun are monsters, and that because you are Jotun, that makes you a monster,” said Darcy. “I will ignore the internalised racism there, for the moment. Your parents love you, despite your heritage. They have always loved you. Your blood doesn’t matter. It doesn’t determine who you are. It is your choices that show what kind of a man – or monster – you truly are.”

“I…” Loki began, his expression lost, and for a moment, Darcy thought that maybe she had gotten through to him. The next moment she was almost thrown off her feet as the helicarrier juddered with impact, the sound of an explosion somewhere in the near distance.

When Darcy looked up again, Loki’s expression had solidified into a satisfied smile, his eyes a piercing, unnatural blue.

“I believe my men have arrived,” he said smugly, and his fingers lit with green. A moment later, the door to his cell opened, and Loki stepped out, his bearing full of confidence and purpose.

The look he turned on Darcy contained no doubt or uncertainty whatsoever.

“Crap,” said Darcy, just in time to be hit with a magical blast that blew her backwards into the far wall.

Darcy groaned with pain, her head ringing. Dizzily, she tried to sit up, forcing her addled brain to think.

Loki. He was older. More knowledgeable. She was younger. Mortal. In serious trouble.

“All those clever, barbed words, and now you have nothing to say?” Loki inquired, the sound of his footsteps drawing closer.

Darcy didn’t open her eyes to see how close he was. Instead, she concentrated, willing to the best of her ability. She really, really hoped this worked.

“A pity,” Loki continued. Darcy put a hand to the wall and pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the way the world spun around her. She forced her eyes open, blinking away her double vision, struggling to focus.

Loki was smiling condescendingly at her, pulling a knife from a concealed place in his armour.

“After all, you are me, in a sense, and it seems shameful that any version of me should be so easily incapacitated,” said Loki. “But then, you are mortal, so perhaps–”

Mjolnir smacked into the back of his head at full speed, knocking Loki flat on his face, his knife clattering to the floor. Darcy grabbed the hammer out of the air.

The moment her hand touched the handle, Darcy was filled with Asgardian strength, the pain and dizziness vanishing instantly. Hoping that Thor wasn’t being badly affected by this, Darcy waited.

Loki pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, and looked upwards.

“What–” he began, and Darcy swung, and Mjolnir hit the side of Loki’s head hard enough to send him flying.

He landed in a crumpled heap, and didn’t move. Darcy patted Mjolnir.

“Really, really glad you still find me worthy enough to come to me when I call you,” she told the hammer gratefully. There was a pulse of righteousness from the hammer, and Darcy patted it a second time, then slung it over her shoulder.

While she desperately wanted to go check on Thor, she had a feeling that someone was going to come bursting in after Loki any second now.

Darcy moved to stand in the centre of the room, Mjolnir at the ready, and waited.


	7. Confessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who left comments/kudos while I was busy doing RL stuff. Here is a new chapter for you!

**Chapter Six**

Alarms were going off everywhere and the floor kept tipping at an angle, but Darcy stayed where she was, standing over Loki’s prone form with the hammer at the ready.

To her relief, the next person to enter the room was Coulson, carrying a big-ass gun. He surveyed the scene with sharp eyes, but all he said was, “Should I ask what happened here?”

“Loki tried to escape,” Darcy explained. “So I summoned Mjolnir and knocked him out. If we’re lucky, that also took care of the whole mind-control thing.”

“Interesting,” said Coulson.

“While we’re asking questions, what the hell does that gun do? Because that is so not standard issue,” said Darcy.

“You know, I’m not actually sure,” Coulson admitted, glancing down at the enormous weapon. “But apparently it got good results during the last run of testing.”

“That thing’s experimental?” Darcy asked. “Wait, never mind, I don’t want to know. What’s going on out there?”

“Agent Barton and the others are attacking the helicarrier,” Coulson replied. “Agent Romanov is on her way to neutralise him.”

At this point Thor suddenly appeared in the doorway, breathing as though he had run the entire way.

“Loki!” he said, and Darcy knew that he was talking to her, not her doppelganger. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” she assured him. “This Loki tried to escape, but Mjolnir came when I called, so it was all fine.”

“I am glad,” said Thor. “I was confused at first, but then I remembered that Mjolnir had found you worthy in the past, and realised that you must be in trouble.” His eyes fell on Loki’s knife, where still lay on the floor. His expression turned grim. “It appears that I was right.”

“Pretty certain he was going to stab me,” Darcy agreed, “but I hit him really hard with the hammer, so hopefully when he wakes up he’ll be a little less homicidal.”

“I’ll leave the two of you here to secure Loki,” said Coulson. “I’m needed elsewhere.”

“Go ahead, Secret Agent Man,” Darcy agreed, waving him off. Coulson gave her a brief chiding look for the nickname, but left the room.

Darcy and Thor glanced at each other, and took up a position on either side of Loki, ready to act if anyone tried to retrieve him.

* * *

It was some time before Coulson came back, no longer holding the giant gun. Loki was still out cold, and Darcy had gone through his armour finding all the concealed sheaths, and removed all of the hidden knives on his person. They sat in a shiny, dangerous heap on the floor on the other side of the room, out of Loki’s reach.

According to Coulson, the worst of the damage to the helicarrier had been fixed, and the flying aircraft carrier should stay in the air, while Agent Barton had been knocked unconscious by Agent Romanov, and so hopefully he should be himself when he awoke. Dr Banner was missing, having turned into the giant green guy and fallen off the helicarrier, and Loki’s Spear of Doom had been taken during the attack: in all the confusion, it had been left unguarded.

“Well, no one showed up and tried to take Loki, so I’m guessing they were expecting him to get out on his own, or something,” said Darcy. “Or maybe they decided to just cut and run.”

“The fact that they have the spear is grave news,” said Thor. “If it can indeed be used to control the Tesseract–”

“Then our job just got harder,” Darcy finished for him. She nudged Loki with her toe. “What do we do with this guy?”

“Since our best cell is apparently incapable of holding him, the Director asks that at least one of you stay with him at all times to prevent his escape,” Coulson said.

“Sounds okay to me,” Darcy agreed. “But can someone bring us some snacks and a bottle of water each? I’m starving, and Thor is going to be even worse.”

Thor didn’t disagree.

“That should be fine,” said Coulson.

Some time later Loki gave a pained groan, his eyes fluttering open. His eyes, when Darcy bent down to have a look, were both unfocused, and distinctly green.

“His eyes are green!” Darcy called out so that anyone listening to the microphones would know, making Loki wince at the sound. “I’m guessing the mind-control is gone. Hey, you.” Darcy prodded Loki. “How do you feel?”

“Like I was trampled by bilchsteim,” Loki muttered, blinking at her dazedly.  A moment later a horrified look crossed his face. “What in the Nine Realms have I _done?_ ”

Darcy patted his shoulder, while Thor hovered in concern in the background.

“It wasn’t you,” she said gently.

“Of course it was me,” Loki said testily. “My mind may have been ensnared, but it was me, nonetheless.” He was silent for a minute. “I think I may be sick.”

A moment later, he threw up.

“Sorry,” said Darcy, when Loki had finished retching, and was sitting there with his eyes shut and looking pale and unwell. “I guess I hit you a little too hard.”

“You what?” Loki opened his eyes again to look at her, his brow furrowing in puzzlement as he tried to work out how a mortal woman could have knocked him out. “How…?”

“I called for Mjolnir,” Darcy explained succinctly. “Hey Thor, pass me your hammer.”

Thor obligingly did so, and Darcy held it up.

“See?”

Loki stared. His expression was indescribable.

“You can wield Mjolnir,” he said dully, and gave a pained laugh. “Of course you can. Does this reality exist purely to torment me with my own inadequacies?”

“Wow was that egocentric,” Darcy remarked., handing the hammer back to Thor. “Not everything is about you, Loki.” She frowned at him. “Also, I may have given you a concussion.”

“Lovely,” Loki groaned.

“Anyway, since you’re no longer mind-controlled, do you mind telling me the point of being captured?”

“It was both a diversion, and an attempt to disable SHIELD,” Loki responded tiredly. Now that the mind-control was gone, his demeanour was entirely different. He looked weary and unwell, and the dark circles beneath his eyes seemed all the more obvious. “While SHIELD focused its resources on me, it failed to interrupt what my people were doing.”

“And then Barton’s attack was supposed to take down the helicarrier completely, right?” Darcy guessed.

“You are correct.”

“Okay. Um, Dr Banner had a theory that you were planning to open another portal to let the Chitauri army through. Was he right?”

Loki blinked in surprise.

“Entirely so. It appears I underestimated him.”

“Story of his life, probably,” said Darcy. “So how do we stop that from happening?”

Loki pulled himself up into a better sitting position, and sat cross-legged, steepling his fingers in front of him. The movement made him turn pale again, but he clearly forced back the nausea with effort, trying to concentrate instead on Darcy’s question.

“My men were supposed to retrieve the spear,” he said slowly. “Did they do so?”

“Apparently,” Darcy confirmed. Loki made a slight face.

“In that case, your only hope is to track them down and destroy the device I have Dr Selvig building. It is designed to use the Tesseract to open a stable portal, so that the Chitauri can come through.” Loki shuddered slightly. Darcy noticed. “If you can destroy the device, the Chitauri will be stuck where they are.”

Darcy gave Loki a long look.

“And what about whoever is in charge of the Chitauri?” she asked.

Loki shuddered again.

“Do not ask me about him,” Loki murmured. “I have no desire to re-live my contact with him.”

“Did he hurt you?” Thor suddenly spoke up, his voice careful, his question unexpectedly observant. Loki went still.

“Yes,” he said finally, looking up at Thor. “It is harder to use mind-control spells on someone with magic of their own, you see. They resist the intrusion. The only way to ensure that the spell takes proper hold is to… _prepare_ its subject.”

Darcy felt her expression darken, her mood plummeting.

“They tortured you.”

Loki only looked at her with that tired, hollow-eyed expression, and didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.

“Okay, I won’t ask you any more about that,” Darcy said, her voice gentle. “Although you should probably see a doctor at some point. Let’s go back to destroying the device. Do you know where your men are, right now?”

“I do not know exactly where they are,” Loki said carefully. “But I know where I intended for the device to be set up.”

“Where?”

“Stark Tower,” Loki confessed, with a wry grin.

“Okay, I admit that’s kind of funny,” Darcy said, after a short pause.

“But it’s possible that they may change that plan, now that I have not rejoined them,” Loki added. “I do not know.”

“Alright,” said Darcy, after a moment. “I’m going to go see what the others think about this. I’m going to leave Thor here to watch you, okay?”

Loki glanced at Thor, whose expression was stormy with angry concern, and back at Darcy.

“I shall live,” he muttered.

“Good. I’ll be right back.”

Darcy left the room, and headed for the briefing room.

The mood there was sombre.

“So, I’m guessing you heard all that?” Darcy asked.

“We heard,” Fury agreed grimly.

“My tower,” Stark grumbled. “That son of a bitch.”

“You guys are going to go take care of it, though, right?” asked Darcy.

“The team will be leaving as soon as possible,” Fury confirmed, glancing at the others.

“I want to go,” said Darcy.

“You’re needed here,” the Director replied immediately.

“Am I?” Darcy asked pointedly. “Thor can keep an eye on him, and Loki’s in no state to go anywhere anyway. He’s been tortured, I’m pretty sure he’s got a concussion, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been starved a little, judging by how skinny he is. You saw him, he couldn’t even sit upright without puking now the mind-control spell is gone.”

Darcy looked at the others – Romanov, Stark, Captain America, plus a guy with arms that she thought might be Barton, judging by the thousand-yard stare he had going. It was uncomfortably close to Loki’s.

“Come on,” Darcy said. “I’m a sorcerer. The Tesseract is, by the standards of any other people, magic. You guys could use me on this. Even if my knowledge doesn’t come in handy dealing with the Tesseract, I’m sure you can use a sorcerer for other reasons.”

Darcy met Fury’s eye. He gave her a hard stare, but Darcy’s gaze didn’t waver.

“Fine,” the Director finally said. “But Thor does not move from Loki’s side.”

“Sure,” said Darcy at once. “But I want Loki given food and water, especially water, and taken somewhere with a bed where he can recover. He might be dangerous, but he’s as much a victim as anyone else in this.”

“Very well,” said Fury. “I’ll make sure it’s done.” He looked at the others. “Avengers. Suit up.”

“Wait, Avengers?” Darcy questioned.

“The Director told us about something called the Avengers Initiative, while you were with Loki,” Captain America said quietly. “A team of extraordinary people dealing with extraordinary threats.”

“Huh. Cool,” said Darcy. “Okay. I’m just going to tell Thor and Loki what’s going on, and then I’ll join you.”

“Be quick about it,” said Fury. Darcy gave him a mock-salute, and left the room.


	8. The Battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _I'm sorry this chapter took so long! It was being stubborn for some reason. I'm posting this late at night, so I'll error-check it tomorrow, but if you see any typos, let me know._

**Chapter Seven**

While Thor wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of staying behind while everyone went off to (potentially) do battle, Darcy pointed out that Loki clearly needed someone to watch over him, and that she didn’t trust anyone but Thor to do so. While this was stretching the truth a little – and Loki himself could tell, if the amused quirk of his lips was any indication – Thor immediately stopped complaining about being left behind, and looked like he was taking his duty of watching over Loki seriously.

That done, Darcy joined the others in the quinjet, where Romanov handed her an earpiece that Darcy fitted into her ear.

The trip to New York was tense, but surprisingly boring. The only interesting part was Stark: he’d chosen to fly to New York in the Iron Man suit, but was linked into the comm., so that Darcy and the others could hear his running commentary on everything that went through his head.

Stark reached New York when the quinjet was still a good five to ten minutes out, and a minute or so later announced that he was about to land at the top of Stark Tower.

“Shit,” Stark said through the comm. “There’s a bunch of people on my balcony, building some sort of… tiny sending tower? That must be to open the portal.” A moment later he started talking to someone. “ Hey, uh, you guys know this is private property, right? Actually, I’m curious how you even got up here. JARVIS?”

There was a pause.

“Great,” Stark said darkly. “Not your fault, buddy.” Then: “Uh, Dr Selvig? That’s you, isn’t it? Uh-huh. Uh, do you want to explain to me exactly what you are building at the top of my tower, here?” There was another, longer pause before Stark spoke again. “Okay. That was actually helpful. A little deranged-sounding, maybe, but helpful. Well, if you guys’ll just – hey, wait–”

There was the sound of gunfire ricocheting, and Stark cursing. Darcy glanced at the others in the quinjet, who all looked equally concerned by whatever was going on at Stark Tower.

“Stark,” said Romanov into her earpiece. “Can you stop them building the machine?”

“They’re about to turn it on,” Stark sounded distracted, “but if you give me a minute I think I can – shit!”

“Stark, what’s the situation?” Captain America asked, but there was no reply from Stark, who was too busy swearing again and talking to JARVIS, whoever that was.

Then there was a long moment of silence before Stark said almost conversationally, “Right. Army.”

“ETA three minutes,” said Barton, who was flying the quinjet.

“Stark!” Captain America demanded.

“Right, right, sorry – I, uh, didn’t shut it down in time. One of these guys had a rocket launcher that blew me back over the balcony, and Selvig turned on the machine while I was, you know. Falling. There’s some kind of force-field surrounding the machine – I’m going to try blasting it, give me a second–”

There was the faint sound of an explosion, and a moment later Stark said, “Well, that failed.”

“What’s happening?” Romanov asked. “Is the portal operational?”

“Unfortunately, yes, and the army Loki mentioned is pouring through it,” Stark responded.

Darcy leaned forward in her seat.

“Stark, this is Lewis,” she said into her earpiece. “Can you see the spear?”

There was a pause, and then:

“Sure, I see it. What are you thinking?”

“Blasting the force-field didn’t work, right?” Darcy asked, and received an affirmative from Stark. “I might be able to use the spear to bypass the force-field, if the spear is linked to the Tesseract the way I think it is. Can you get the spear?”

“Well, some guy has it right now, but–” Stark went quiet, presumably busy getting hold of the spear.

“Landing now,” said Barton, into the moment’s silence.

Darcy and the others got to their feet as the quinjet landed outside Stark Tower. Darcy immediately strode out of the plane, and looked up at Stark Tower.

Far above her head was a massive portal, with all kinds of weird creatures pouring out of it.

“Not good,” Darcy muttered, and strode into the Stark Tower lobby. “Stark,” she added into her comm., “if I get in the elevator can someone in security send me up to the top floor?”

There was a moment’s silence, then,

“Sure,” Stark said, sounding harried. “Just pick an elevator, JARVIS’ll take you to the top.”

Wondering who ‘JARVIS’ was, Darcy hit the elevator button, and entered the elevator the moment the doors opened up.

It took a couple of minutes to get to the top floor, and Darcy could hear Captain America giving instructions to the others through her earpiece.

“Miss Lewis,” he said, when he finished telling the others what to do about the aliens pouring from the sky. “I assume you have a plan.”

“Kind of,” said Darcy.

The elevator doors opened. Darcy had just a moment to see that the penthouse floor was in shambles and full of guys in tactical gear, before guns swung in her direction.

Darcy ‘eeped’ and flung herself to the side of the elevator, huddling behind the bank of buttons. The sound of gunfire outside the elevator was deafening. Darcy winced, pressing herself as close to the wall as possible and hoping that none of the bullets hit her. Sure, she was wearing armour, but her armour didn’t cover _everything._

For the first time, Darcy regretted not wearing the dorky helmet.

After a moment the elevator doors closed automatically. The sound of shooting continued.

“Stark!” Darcy said into her comm. “Do you have the spear yet?”

“Yep, I’ve got it,” Stark replied. “Where are you?”

“I’m still stuck in the elevator, a bunch of guys in the penthouse are shooting at me,” Darcy replied. “Can you get the spear to the elevator?”

“I’ll do my best,” Stark said.

A minute later there was the sound of a small explosion outside the elevator, followed by the muffled sound of shouting.

Darcy took a chance, hitting the ‘door open’ button and sticking her head out of the elevator to see what was going on.

Iron Man was walking across the penthouse floor, spear in one hand, blasting at the guys shooting at him with the other.

“Lewis, you ready to grab this thing?” Stark asked over the comm.

“As long as you’re distracting the guys with guns,” Darcy affirmed.

“Then catch!”

Stark threw the spear in Darcy’s direction, and she ducked out of the elevator just long enough to extend an arm to catch it. The spear fell into her hand like it belonged there, the gem at the end of it shining with a mesmerising blue glow.

As Darcy ducked back into the elevator, doors closing behind her again, feelings of glee and triumph welled up inside her.  She had the spear. With the spear she could end this stupid invasion, and go on to do anything she wanted –

Darcy shook off the magical influence with the skill of a practiced sorcerer, and glared at the spear.

“Stop that,” she told it, shaking it reprimandingly. “I’m ending the invasion. That’s all.”

Almost sulkily the magic of the spear bowed under her will, until the only thought in Darcy’s head was stopping the invasion.

Taking a deep breath, Darcy hit the ‘door open’ button on the elevator and strode out through the elevator doors.

Someone immediately turned towards her with their gun raised, but the spear responded instantly to Darcy’s wishes, sending out a blast of energy that threw the guy backwards. Darcy smiled with all her teeth, and felt the spear respond to her mood, the jewel at its end growing brighter in sync with Darcy’s determination. Two more blasts in quick succession incapacitated the remaining shooters.

Iron Man lowered his raised arm, now that there was no one left to blast.

“Thanks,” Stark said, and Darcy heard his voice both through the earpiece and through the vocaliser in his suit. “Nice timing, Merlin.”

“Oh my God, do not call me Merlin, he was such a whiny little jerk,” Darcy retorted, heading towards the penthouse balcony.

“Wait, Merlin was real?” said Barton’s voice in Darcy’s ear.

“Can we focus?” Captain America asked testily.

“I _am_ focused,” said Darcy, striding out onto the balcony with Stark not far behind. There were more people in tactical suits here, although none of them were armed. Darcy swung the spear like a staff, bringing the spear down on heads and across shoulders, bringing down the guys in tactical suits.

Sitting on the balcony was a device with the Tesseract at its centre, a solid beam of blue-white light extending from the Tesseract and up into the sky, a blue force-field surrounding it.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, because that thing resisted everything I threw at it,” said Stark, as overhead more alien monsters came soaring through the portal.

“I know exactly what I’m doing,” Darcy said, adding under her breath, “I hope.”

She stepped forward until she was only inches away from the force-field, and lowered the spear until its blade made contact. As she expected, the blade pierced the force-field, sliding slowly through it.

“No!” a voice cried out, and Erik stumbled over, his eyes frantic and an eerie blue. “You mustn’t! She –”

Stark hit Erik just hard enough to knock him unconscious, catching the scientist as he crumpled to the balcony floor.

Darcy continued pushing the spear through the force-field, until it was touching the Tesseract.

 _Stop,_ Darcy thought, as clearly as she could. _Shut the portal down. Deactivate._

For a moment, nothing happened: then the beam of light stretching up into the sky vanished, in the same moment as the force-field disappeared. Darcy craned her head back to look up at the sky, as aliens fell and the portal grew smaller and smaller. A moment later, and it closed completely.

The Tesseract was a cool, icy blue, like its surface had frosted over. The vivid blue glow was gone.

“I closed the portal. The Tesseract is inactive,” Darcy reported over her comm. She felt suddenly tired, as though all the activity of the past twenty-four hours had caught up with her all at once.

The spear fell from her hand with a clatter, nothing more than an inert object now that the Tesseract was no longer active. And without the contact of the spear – the Tesseract’s conduit – propelling her on, Darcy felt like she was going to pass out.

She sank to her knees, dignity forgotten, as a wave of irresistible weariness washed over her.

“Lewis!” Stark sounded alarmed. “Lewis! Stay awake!”

But Darcy was drifting into darkness. The last thing she saw before she passed out was Iron Man by her side, shaking her shoulder urgently.

* * *

When Darcy woke, she was lying on a bed in a bright white room that looked like a hospital ward. Thor was stretched out in a chair next to her bed, snoring gently. Darcy turned her head, and discovered that the other Loki was sitting up in the bed next to hers, a stand with food and water next to his bed. He looked a little better than he had the last time Darcy had seen him.

“Is that pie?” Darcy asked blearily. “Gimme.”

“I would prefer that you found your own,” said Loki, but he passed Darcy the plate of pie anyway. Darcy picked up the fork and immediately dug in. She was _starving_.

“Apparently sustained contact with the magic of the Tesseract was a little too much for your mortal constitution,” Loki remarked, watching with vague fascination as Darcy basically hoovered down the slice of pie. “You passed out.”

“Yeah, I probably should have realised that might happen,” Darcy said between mouthfuls. “In my defence, I was too busy worrying about stopping what was going on to think about my health.”

“And if you had?” Loki asked, watching Darcy intently.

“I still would have done the same,” Darcy told him. “Duh.”

“You need not speak to me as though I have the wit of a simpleton,” said Loki. He added with a playful gleam in his eyes, “I am not Thor.”

Darcy pointed her fork at him.

“Okay, no, insulting Thor is not cool. He’s basically my brother, and more importantly, he’s not the dick he used to be, okay? Besides, you don’t actually know the guy. Someone _like_ him, sure, but not this Thor.”

The playful gleam vanished, to be replaced by a more sombre look.

“I am aware of that,” said Loki carefully. “However, it may take time to change my habits, you realise.”

“Yeah, but you can still make an effort, right? I don’t mind actual teasing, but no more of this ‘tear Thor down’ stuff. His ego doesn’t need pricking.”

“I admit, I find the notion of a Thor who is not a thoughtless braggart difficult to process, even having seen evidence of it myself,” said Loki. “You are lucky to have him.”

“What happened between you guys, anyway?” Darcy asked, waving her fork around. “You and your Thor, I mean. You seem really…” Darcy trailed off, trying to think of a tactful way to put it.

“I lived all my life in Thor’s shadow,” said Loki shortly, “and when my chance for glory finally came, he could not even let me have that.”

“Okay, I’m sensing a lot more going on there,” Darcy prodded, putting the plate of pie down.

Loki sighed, and sagged a little.

“I had just found out that I was Jotun,” he admitted, the words coming with obvious difficulty. “I was not… thinking clearly.” He was quiet for a moment. “Thor was banished for his foolhardiness, and Odin was in the Odinsleep. I was made his regent.”

“Sounds a lot like what happened here, except that Frigga was made regent,” Darcy observed.

Loki gave a hollow laugh.

“Perhaps it would have been better had that happened in my world also. Instead, I was made king, and faced an impossible dilemma: how to avert war with Jotunheim. I was mad, you understand, reeling with the truth of my parentage and Odin’s plans for me, and I thought…”

“You thought?” Darcy asked softly.

“I thought that I could prove myself truly Odin’s son and avert the war in one fell swoop.” Loki’s eyes were burning with emotion. “Through the destruction of Jotunheim and its king.”

Darcy let the words sink into her brain. She closed her eyes, trying not to react. Instead, she slipped into the mindset of the young man she had once been, thinking about how she would have reacted, had she been Loki and in his position. It was disturbingly easy to picture her past self reacting in precisely the same way.

“How?” Darcy asked, without opening her eyes.

“The Bifrost,” Loki said simply.

“Clever,” Darcy allowed, opening her eyes. “Brilliant, even. But things didn’t go the way you planned.”

“Thor intervened,” Loki burst out, the words angry and full of hurt even as he tried to control himself. “I could have fixed everything, but Thor _broke_ the Bifrost rather than let me do so! And then Father –” Loki shut his mouth abruptly.

“And then you fell from the Bifrost,” Darcy murmured. Loki glanced away.

“Yes.”

There was something wrong with the way Loki had said ‘yes,’ something that Darcy recognised from being Loki herself. Loki was lying. But why…?

_Oh._

“You didn’t _fall_ ,” Darcy said in quiet realisation. “You –”

Loki flinched, his hands curled tightly around the edge of the blankets. Darcy let out a long breath.

She climbed out of her bed, walking over to Loki’s bed, where Loki sat watching her in tense, wary confusion.

Darcy leaned in close and hugged the hell out of him.

Loki was stiff as a board at first, but slowly he loosened up, slowly melting into the hug. Darcy heard a choked, hitching breath in her ear, and felt wetness on her neck, but she didn’t move.

Only when Loki’s breathing evened out did Darcy let go. Loki looked at her with a weird mix of vulnerability, wariness and gratitude.

“I’m not going to judge you,” Darcy said, her voice soft. “And neither is my Thor. Right, Thor?” She turned and poked Thor in the arm. “Stop pretending to be asleep, I know you’re awake and heard all of that,” she told him. “So for crying out loud, tell Loki you’re not going to judge him.”

Thor opened his eyes sheepishly, while Loki looked startled and humiliated, ready to bolt – or worse, launch an attack.

“How did you know I was awake?” Thor asked.

“You stopped snoring, genius.”

“You –” Loki began, his expression indescribable, but Thor turned eyes full of sorrowful remorse on him, and Loki stopped.

“I am sorry,” said Thor, deep and heartfelt, “that your Thor was not a better brother to you.”

And Loki – Loki looked like someone had sucker-punched him. He opened his mouth a couple of times, but nothing came out.

“You deserve far better,” Thor added, and Loki closed his eyes, his expression pained.

“What did I ever do to deserve such faith?” he asked, his voice broken. “You know not what I have done –”

“I heard.” Thor’s voice was firm. “And I do not judge you for it, either.”

Loki didn’t reply, just sat there looking like a house had fallen on him. Darcy patted his arm reassuringly.

“Drink some more water,” she said. “You still don’t look that great.”

Loki…

Loki sat there, and looked at her like she was some kind of salvation.


	9. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter mostly ties up a few loose ends. I tried to make it longer, but it steadfastly resisted. My inspiration seems to have run out on this fic.

**Epilogue**

Watching Jane reuniting with Thor was, Darcy had to admit, kind of amusing. The two of them had been ‘courting’ for a few months now, and both of them were so totally gone on each other that it was hilarious. As Darcy watched, Jane took a running leap into Thor’s arms, and Thor swept her up into a passionate kiss.

A minute or so passed, and it was pretty obvious that the couple had forgotten about everything else around them.

Loki – still pale and drawn-looking, but a little less shaken-up than he’d looked earlier – glanced over at Darcy from his hospital bed.

“Do they always behave like this?”

“If they’re separated for more than a day? Yup,” Darcy sighed, as Jane got in a good grope of Thor’s biceps. Thor didn’t seem to mind. “Sickening, isn’t it.”

“Have they forgotten we’re here?” Loki wondered.

“Probably,” said Darcy. She raised her voice. “Sure, just go on making out, it’s not like there are other people around, or something!”

Jane and Thor broke apart.

“Darcy!” Jane exclaimed, and swooped down on her. “Are you alright? No one would tell me anything!”

Jane looked genuinely distressed, so Darcy patted her arm reassuringly.

“I assure you, I am fine. There is no need for you to concern yourself,” said Darcy. “I’m amazeballs.”

“You know, it really is fascinating when you do that,” Loki observed, gazing at Darcy in intellectual interest. “One moment, you sound eerily like myself, and the next, you use a phrase like ‘amazeballs.’” His voice was full of disdain.

Darcy shrugged, because she wasn’t ashamed of her vocabulary, even if her use of it was totally erratic.

Jane blinked at Loki.

“Who are you?” she asked, and glanced at Thor, clearly hoping for an introduction.

“He is a version of Loki from another reality,” Thor explained. “One where Loki was not killed, and therefore was not reborn as Darcy.”

Jane’s eyes went round, and a disbelieving smile was on her lips.

“Wait, you’re from another universe?” she asked, looking at Loki eagerly. “That’s amazing. What was it like there? Were the universal constants the same? Was –”

“Easy, boss-lady,” Darcy said soothingly, because Loki was looking wary and faintly alarmed. “Go easy on the poor guy, okay? He doesn’t need you asking him a million questions about the nature of reality. He’s in medical, remember?”

“Oh,” said Jane, looking a little abashed. “Right. Sorry,” she added to Loki.

Loki managed to summon up a gallant smile.

“No offence taken. But Darcy is right, and I am not really in a state to answer complex questions.” He gave Jane a ‘bravely soldiering on’ look, which made Darcy snort out loud – because yes, okay, Loki wasn’t in good shape, but that look was just laying it on thick.

Loki’s eyes flickered to Darcy’s, and she winked at him. The corner of his mouth tipped up the tiniest bit, barely enough to be visible. The rest of his face stayed fixed in the ‘bravely soldiering on’ expression.

“When you’re feeling better, then,” Jane said resolutely, and Loki’s vaguely alarmed look returned. He looked at Darcy.

“Yeah, she’s always like that,” Darcy told him unsympathetically. “You get used to it.”

“Get used to what?” Jane demanded, eyes narrowing.

“I believe that Darcy is referring to your constant determination to seek out knowledge at all costs, my love,” said Thor, looking gently amused by the whole scene, and wrapping an arm around Jane’s shoulders.

“Oh.” Jane looked a little less ruffled, at that.

“You two crazy kids should go catch up,” Darcy said, waving her hand in a shooing motion at them. “I know it’s been like a week since Thor last visited. Go. Have fun. See if you can have wild monkey sex on Coulson’s desk.”

Jane’s scandalised shout of “ _Darcy!”_ was accompanied by Thor’s booming laugh.

“Perhaps another time, sister,” he said, grinning.

“Thor!” Jane hit his chest indignantly. Thor caught her hand before she could hit him a second time, and gave her a wide smile.

“Come, Jane, let us retire to the cafeteria, where we can feast as you regale me with your activities of the past week, as I share my own with you,” he said, steering Jane towards the door. “You must be famished after your journey.”

“Well – I guess I’m a little hungry–” Darcy heard Jane say, as the two of them disappeared through the doorway.

“That was some adept manoeuvring on Thor’s part,” Loki commented, sounding a little surprised. Darcy grinned slightly.

“He’s picked up a thing or two,” Darcy admitted. “It gives me proud sisterly feelings whenever he’s a little sneaky, but don’t tell anyone.”

“I see,” said Loki. There was a moment’s silence. “If you don’t mind, I believe I will take a nap.”

“Go ahead,” Darcy said. “I’m going to see if I can get someone to bring me a book or something. Maybe Coulson’ll part with something from his gothic novel stash.”

Loki made a face that was somewhere between disdainful and amused, and closed his eyes, settling back into the bed. Darcy watched him for a while, but he seemed to have drifted off into a sound sleep.

Darcy swung her feet out of bed, and went looking for the nearest SHIELD agent. Maybe one of them could take a message to Coulson.

* * *

The damage to New York from the alien invasion wasn’t as great as it could have been, but there was still a lot of destruction. Lots of people were injured in the attack, while the death toll was in the dozens.

More damaging, in some ways, was the realisation that humanity wasn’t alone, and there were alien species out there – some of which wanted to conquer other planets, as the Chitauri proved. Earth was clearly at a disadvantage when it came to dealing with more advanced species: even SHIELD hadn’t been equipped to deal with the aliens that had come through the portal. If Darcy hadn’t succeeded in shutting the portal down when she did, things could have gone very differently.

The public didn’t know exactly what had happened, of course – most of the details about the invasion were classified – but everyone had seen the aliens pouring into the sky over New York from the portal, and it wasn’t hard for people to come to the realisation that if there were other alien civilisations out there looking for people to conquer, then Earth was a prime spot. No one seemed to know what to do about the problem, though.

Darcy, for her part, had to deal with panicked phone calls from her parents, who only knew that she was in New York working on a classified project. It had taken about an hour to calm them both down and reassure them that she was fine, and no, she didn’t have a good reason for not answering her phone for, like, the past day (Darcy had decided to keep her bout of unconsciousness to herself so that her parents didn’t freak out even further).

Overall, Earth had come out more or less okay, but Darcy had the feeling that this wasn’t going to be the only interstellar incident humanity was going to deal with in the upcoming years.

* * *

A month later, Darcy sat at the table in her apartment, wearing her favourite green-and-gold jacket. Loki was sitting opposite, wearing a green-and-black suit and scarf ensemble, his previously-long hair cut short in a fashionable style. It had only been a month since he had been sent through the portal by whoever had controlled the Chitauri (Loki still refused to talk about it), but that month had made a world of difference. Loki’s face had filled out a little, gaining some colour, and with the different haircut he looked almost like a different person. In his current attire he looked like a fashionable young businessman verging on the edge of hipster.

“Okay,” Darcy said, shoving a folder across the table. Loki took it, and opened it curiously, looking at the documents and driver’s license inside.

“So, since it’s pretty much impossible for you to go home and you don’t really want to do that anyway, I made some arrangements so that you can stay here. I pulled some strings with SHIELD, mostly via logic and awesomeness, and you now have a new identity as Lucas Lewis, bone fide American citizen,” Darcy began.

“Lucas?” Loki didn’t sound entirely satisfied with his new name.

“Shut up, I could have called you Louis Lewis,” Darcy retorted. Loki looked appalled.

“I am grateful that you did not.”

“Anyway, so you’re now Lucas Lewis, my newfound cousin,” Darcy continued. “My Uncle Jack was a conman who left a bunch of kids across half a dozen states, no one’s going to be surprised if another one pops up out of nowhere. Although, if anyone asks, you went to British boarding school, and that’s where your accent comes from.”

“I see.” Loki was still looking through the folder of documents.

“My family’s going to want to meet you at some point, so the official story is, we both work at the same place, which we aren’t allowed to talk about, and ending up comparing family histories one day when things were slow, which was how we found out we were probably related. I mean, how many conmen named Jack Caldicott Lewis do you think are running around out there?”

“I assume that there are very few, judging from the tone of your question,” said Loki, his voice playful. Lucas, Darcy corrected herself mentally. She needed to start calling him Lucas, or else it was going to get hella confusing with two Lokis around.

“Right,” said Darcy. “Anyway, you didn’t know him well, because he wasn’t around a lot, but he taught you a couple of things, like how to cheat at cards and how to pick locks.”

Uncle Jack might not have visited very often, but he believed in looking out for family the best way he knew how, which was why he’d taught Darcy all kinds of useful, admittedly-shady skills.

“That is why you have been teaching me mortal card games,” Loki said in realisation, with a faint sliver of a smile.

“Well yeah, but also because it’s useful if you need cash in a hurry,” said Darcy. “Just don’t play against mobsters, that never ends well. They hate cheaters.”

Loki only gave her a toothy grin. Oh well, he’d learn the hard way, Darcy decided. Not her problem.

Loki closed the folder, and looked at Darcy with a serious expression.

“I am not insensible of the magnitude of what you are doing for me,” he said. “To offer me a place in your own family is generous indeed.”

Darcy kicked him gently under the table.

“Hey, I would have made us twins if I could have gotten away with it,” she said. “Only, too many people know that I don’t have a twin, plus my parents would know something was up. I always wanted sibs.”

Loki smiled at that.

“Nonetheless, I must express my thanks,” he said. “For all that you have done, and continued to do. I cannot recall the last time that someone went to such trouble on my behalf.”

Darcy accepted this with a nod.

“I understand your gratitude, but really, it is unnecessary.” She smirked at him. “Having someone who can keep up with me is thanks enough.”

Loki smiled back, and they shared a moment of mutual understanding.

“I look forward to exploring the opportunities Midgard offers,” said Loki. “It has been a long time since I was last this free of expectations.”

“Just don’t do anything that’ll get you arrested or blacklisted,” Darcy cautioned him, grinning.

“I assure you, no one will ever know that I was involved,” Loki promised, which, while not the promise Darcy was aiming for, was probably the best she was going to get. It made her laugh, anyway.

“I feel sorry for whoever you tangle with,” she said, smiling. She got to her feet, and Loki, recognising his cue, stood as well. “Anyway, that’s everything. Good luck, and feel free to visit any time you like.”

“Thank you,” said Loki sincerely. He picked the folder Darcy had given him up off the table, and tucked it under his arm. “I bid you good day, and hope that fortune smiles upon you.”

“You too,” said Darcy.

Loki paused in front of the front door, and gave her one last smile. It was friendly and mischievous.

“But in my current circumstances, can you doubt it?” he asked, and winked.

Darcy just rolled her eyes and shut the door behind him as he left, mentally wishing him luck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to all of you who read, reviewed, and left kudos. I hope you enjoyed this fic!


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